overstimulate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to stimulate (something) to an excessive or harmful degree.
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Physiology. to cause (someone) to experience sensory overload.
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Physiology. to cause (a gland, nerve, or other organ) to become overactive and produce an abnormal increase in its usual activity.
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Overstimulate means to overwhelm someone, or make something overactive. Feeling angry, frustrated, or upset in a noisy or brightly lit space might suggest that you're easy to overstimulate. Caffeine might overstimulate your brain and make it difficult to sleep, or loud music which is fun at first might eventually make you feel overwhelmed, or overstimulated. Stimulate means "to provide stimulus or input." Overstimulate means "to provide an overwhelming amount of input."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The pulsating music, giant inflatables tossed into the crowd and sudden blasts of fog can overstimulate kids.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2025
The smells, lights, textures, and crowds in the ER can overstimulate a person with autism, she said.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 11, 2024
Alicia also says day-to-day activities, like grocery shopping, medical appointments and haircuts, have been abandoned, as she prioritises preventing situations that could overstimulate her son.
From BBC • Jan. 3, 2024
Making a room hypertransparent for people who are deaf may overstimulate people who are autistic.
From Scientific American • Mar. 20, 2023
Failing to get the taste of our food, we think it insipid, and hence use condiments that overstimulate the digestive organs.
From Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics by Steele, Joel Dorman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
